Squash anyone?
12:06 a.m.
We ended up leaving later than we�d hoped or dreamed on Friday, 2:30 instead of 12:30. It takes about four hours to drive from L�ville to the Nation�s Capital, and we had originally planned to arrive around 4:30, have time to dine and change into our finery and go to the concert in a leisurely fashion. As it turned out, we got stuck in Montreal rush-hour and just 10 km before entering the greater Ottawa area traffic came to a standstill. Fortunately we had our cell phone with us and were able to call the singer, who said that if we were late she would programme Hubby�s piece for later in the first half. We also informed our B&B that we would be later than planned. At that moment an ambulance came through, driving on the shoulder, and shortly after that traffic started moving again. As we passed the accident site, we witnessed a red car off the road that had apparently plowed into a tree and was quite literally totalled. How horrible.
We arrived at our B&B at 6:55, changed into our concert duds, I slapped on some makeup, and we wended our way to the hall (quite literally as Hull is riddled with one-way streets), arriving right at 7:30 and found a place to park right outside the door. The concert was in a low-ceilinged room, an acoustically-tiled ceiling, which acted also as an art gallery. The piano was a �baby� grand, but could more accurately be described as a �foetal� grand, and it was not a happy instrument. The singer was tall (I think the polite word for her figure is �statuesque�) and the audience was largely Mexican. The first half of the concert was music by Canadian composers, and the second half celebrated Mexican composers. So far so good. Oh yes, the celebration was in honour of 60 years of relations between Mexico and Canada.
Most of the music was of a popular bent. The Qu�becois chansonnier was the man of the hour, namely Gilles Vigneault. The soprano performed three of his pieces and two others in French by composers who were more �classical�, but not by much, and both deceased. Hubby�s piece did not fit. At all. It�s complex, definitely �modern�, requires the singer and pianist to be extremely good at what they do, and the listener really needs to be paying attention. It�s a wonderful piece, a concert aria. I have performed it with tcklyrpharsn�s former piano teacher, and it was brilliant. This particular pianist was not up to the task. The piano was not up to the task. The singer fell severely short of our expectations. She managed fine with the popular stuff, including all the Mexican songs in the second half. She was very expressive, but her technique is flawed as soon as she passed into her head register. Hubby and I were both cringeing as she massacred (she and her accompanist) his piece. To their credit they never fell apart, they managed to keep it together to the end. But it was still sad. Afterwards there was this obnoxious guy who very �helpfully� told Hubby how he could improve the piece. Oy.
There was a reception afterwards of Mexican finger foods. Unfortunately they were all meaty in nature, and we did not partake. We had also missed supper and were starting to get weak. We asked the soprano if she would like to join us for a meal, and as soon as she could get away from her adoring public we hopped into our car and headed into Ottawa hoping to find a restaurant in the Market area. It was Friday night, downtown Ottawa was hopping, and there was nary a parking place to be found. So she thought to take us to another, vegetarian, restaurant, which required getting on the expressway. Of course we missed our exit, had to circle back, missed our exit again, and gave up on that particular place. Then we started down another street, fast-food heaven, circled back again and pulled into a very classy looking Italian restaurant. It was 11:05. The kitchen had closed five minutes earlier. We had been driving for one hour. So, we headed back to Hull and found a bistro not a 10-minute walk from the concert venue. After driving the soprano home we arrived back at our room at 1:03 a.m.
This morning we breakfasted and spent part of the day at the Museum of Civilization. It was wonderful. I had never been there before, and I recommend it highly. The architecture of the building alone is worth the visit, and the great hall is full of west-coast Indian totem poles and other artifacts. We toured the First People�s gallery, and saw the most wonderful things: beaded moccasins and whalebone carvings, paintings, enormous plaster sculptures by Bill Reid. It made up for the disappointment of the night before.
Unfortunately we again ended up leaving later than planned but Buddy Boy managed a ride home from his rehearsal anyway. The kids survived our absence overnight, and we managed a little getaway. If we plan our lives properly next time, we can do it again and see more of the museum. After all, it is only four hours one way, and staying overnight means you break up the trip somewhat.
We watched Big Fish this evening and it was a wonderful film. And now it is well past the witching hour and I must go to sleep before I turn into the proverbial pumpkin.
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